


Pokemon Frostbite

by EIG613



Series: E.I.G.'s Pokemon Setting [3]
Category: Pocket Monsters | Pokemon - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, Non-Consensual Body Modification, Self-Harm, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-08
Packaged: 2021-03-10 09:20:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 12,894
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27968207
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EIG613/pseuds/EIG613
Summary: Typechange AUWhat if Alexa had not forgotten about the Ice typed Frozen Flame?Warning darker tone than Pokemon Typechange
Series: E.I.G.'s Pokemon Setting [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2038366
Kudos: 4





	1. Frostbite

**Author's Note:**

> This series of segments forms an alternate universe take on my first story that I wrote alongside it. The tone here is much darker, so I have quite deliberately split it off and added a lot of warnings. The self harm is entirely in this first chapter, and while not detailed is clearly present.
> 
> Overall I am mostly posting this to this site for completeness sake, and I feel that if this story is to be read at all it should be read after Typechange itself, that way you can experience the other story's lack of direct translation of the pokemon fully. The chapters after the first one have some good bits in my opinion, but I definitely went a bit too far at the start.
> 
> This story was the part of Typechange's creation that I had the most ideas to progress with past the story's end, but in the end the result was too dark for my tastes to continue, and I had other stories I wanted to try and tell.

\--- Frostbite ---

"Alright everyone," Alexa said to her team, "you all have tried at least one of these items so far. Before we go on does anyone want to try the other crystal?" As she asked this she began to reach into the box and take out the unmelting ice. Her team watched considering, the two who could end their transformations looking towards each other while the two who would be back to normal soon simply considered the box as she reached inside.

However, grabbing the other Frozen Flame felt much colder than she expected. The strange chill making her hand close quickly around the crystal. Then the feeling was replaced by a deep warmth that spread down her arm. Alexa found herself getting light headed as the sensation went through her body and lost track of the ice that had just been in her hand. Her vision swimming as it reached her head and her sense of balance rocking badly making her stumble. A warm limb caught her and a growling voice asked, "Alexa? Is that you? Are you ok?". Blinking to clear her vision she wondered at how the room seemed to be hotter than before. Not unbearable, but still warmer than her body preferred.

Lifting a hand in front of her to grab the counter she instead saw a icy claw move into sight. Five digits made of opaque blueish crystal, shaped like a large gauntlet was on her hand. Attempting to curl the fingers of her hand moved the claw as she wished. She moved her gaze down the limb, the icy covering continuing over the forearm and elbow with a large spike of ice jutting backwards from the joint. The coating then faded away at the bicep changing to a pale white hide of small scales.

Seeing this she steadied herself on her feet to stop leaning on the warm person who helped her. She moved her other hand to feel the strange limb she saw, and noticed that it was a mirror of the first appendage. As she touched the icy claws to the arm she found herself feeling both as her own body. The parts covered in ice felt somewhere between the sensation of touching a fingernail and that of touching a callus, while the scaly hide was softer and gave like the skin on her Fire type.

Still shocked she looked towards her shoulder and found that at the joint a mass of spined icy armor covered her chest. Looking down she was able to see that it covered most of her torso, stopping halfway down her belly where it again turned to pale scales just above the belt that held her pokeballs. Her legs were wider apart than usual, and starting around halfway down her thighs their forms also changed to the ice covering. Her feet had been replaced by clawed reptilian toes.

Horrified she moved to place a hand over her mouth only to knock into it early sending her teeth knocking against each other. Feeling her face with both hands she found a short lizard like muzzle covered in the same scale textured hide. One hand moved down her neck finding much the same until the ice covering of her chest started. The other reached back and found her hair replaced by a large cluster of thin spines of ice along the back of her head.

She felt herself beginning to panic, and once again heard the growling words speak fearfully, "Alexa, you're hitting me with your tail." Looking back behind her showed a long reptilian tail emerging from her, the length covered in white scales with backwards pointing spikes of ice traveling down either side growing smaller but denser as they neared the tip. Reaching back she felt the new appendage, finding herself able to feel it the same as the previous limbs and with a small amount of effort she was able to move it at will.

Feeling the base of it around the location her belt crossed her back she found a tender spot, and suddenly realized that it must be where the Frozen Flame had moved during her own apparent transformation. Desperately she began to awkwardly claw at the spot, quickly severing her belt and sending the pokeballs rolling a short distance. Behind her she heard a variety of sounds voicing concern and fear. Her first few clumsy attempts to pry the crystal out slid off the scales of her back as she tried to use the unfamiliar points at the ends of her digits. Finally digging one into the spot brought a wave of intense pain that made her cry out with an inhuman roar and stumble from the shock of it.

Her wild motion left her feet traveling across the floor trying to catch herself until she stepped on something. A click rang through the room and she found herself falling inexplicably while the temperature cooled to a pleasant level. Unable to see she found herself feeling like she was caught up in a net, although part of her mind was comparing it more to a safety net than a fishing net. She was able to push outwards on the feeling, and could even tell that with a bit more effort she could break free. However, her thoughts went to the sense of falling and instead of following her instinct to resist she held still as her intelligence told her was the safer option after being caught from a fall.

The net seemed to be trying to do something to her, although she couldn't quite tell what. She was able to resit this action, and did so for a moment while considering what could have happened. Resigned and worried about breaking the net she let it continue, resulting in a sensation like someone scratching her skin lightly. The net then felt much nicer, almost like a part of her, and at the same time she heard a loud 'click' sound out.

With this Alexa recalled that she had kept one of her empty pokeballs on her belt, and realized what must have just happened. Straining her senses she could barely hear voices talking worriedly outside her container, the sound tinny as if from a poor quality speaker. There was a strange sense of someone getting closer, and then another 'click' that accompanied the net splitting open. She suddenly found herself back in the lab, roughly landing on her feet near her team. The heat of the room once again feeling like too much against her skin.

There was much shuffling going on, and she heard the voices continue to discuss amongst themselves in fear. Now looking at her pokemon she saw that it was their voices, still making the same sounds but suddenly so much clearer in meaning. "Alexa?" Charizard asked clearly and shaking with fear, "Are you okay?"

"I- I'm not sure," her voice was slightly deeper, but still seemed to be making human words. "What is happening?" she asked staring at the small sphere that she could vaguely sense as her own. Pokeballs took a piece of a pokemon's energy to bind themselves to the creature, and she knew that as a result the captured pokemon could tell which of the small items was their own. However, intellectually knowing that did not make the alien sense of 'mine' that the ball possessed any easier to deal with.

"What's happening?" Bellossom asked hysterically, "She turns into a dragon and has to ask 'what's happening'?"

"A dragon?" Alexa nervously looked over her body again. At her statement the room stilled, Bellossom in particular freezing to look at the trainer.

"Charizard, tell me she didn't just ask that," the Grass/Electric type said quietly.

The large reptile ignored his teammate and picked up the newly used pokeball. Alexa shuddered slightly at the movement of the item, sensing its motion unnaturally. "Can you understand-" the Fire type began only to be cut off.

"Get it out," Alexa said with a mix of panic and resolve. Starting to move her hands back to the crystal's location she continued with less composure, "Get it out. Get it Out. Get it Out of me!" Charizard quickly grabbed her arms before she could resume clawing at her own altered body. "I want that thing out of me now!" she roared at her pokemon, this time without any words of human language.

Charizard got an oddly serious and calm look on his face at the outburst. He turned to the two Grass types present. "Hold her down," he said clearly and without emotion.

Bellossom looked shocked at this. "You can't be serious," Rhydon said horrified.

"Do it," Alexa hissed realizing his plan and laying down on her belly across the floor. The sight and sound of their trainer agreeing getting the two to reluctantly grow thick heavy vines up through the tile floor of the lab. Two of these wrapped around each of her limbs, including a pair for her tail that had her shuddering at the touch to the new body part.

"I'm sorry," Charizard said, and then moved towards her tail. Moments later she felt an intense stabbing pain as he clawed the crystal out of her back. Loud roars of pain echoing through the lab as she struggled involuntary against the vines. She thought she could hear crying.

Then suddenly the pain was gone and with it the feeling of being in a too hot room. This was replaced by the cold wet feeling of ice pressing against her arms, legs, and chest. Attempting to lift herself she was able to slide her arms out of the icy gauntlets they had been in, while she heard an unintelligible grumble behind her begin to crack the large piece of ice slowly melting against her clothes. Her legs did not come out of their icy containment, but she saw Charizard move to those as soon as he had finished splitting the piece across her chest.

Looking at the pile of ice chunks she could see that they were the pieces of the other form that had been made of ice, including a pile of spikes extending behind her where the tail had been moments before. It was just like how the hard spines of Kingler's transformation were left behind when she was turned back. Shakily getting out of the leg pieces as the Fire type split them she looked around the room. The floor was broken where the vines had gone through it, and the pile of ice pieces was very slowly melting inside of those. Her belt sat some distance off, torn at the back by claws, with the pokeballs scatters around the room.

Near her former tail there sat two items right next to each other. The Frozen Flame crystal sitting right where it must have landed when Charizard removed it, and the small red and white pokeball that she could still sense was her own.

"Somebody, go get my dad," she said shaking as she began to break down and cry. She barely paid attention to the shuffle of wordless noise from her team as they ran for the door. Charizard looked at her sadly and gathered her up, moving to keep her warm with his tailflame. She heard the door close as he growled what might be apologies.


	2. Training

The Ice/Dragon swung her tail in an arc sending shards of ice at the rock by the edge of the pond. Most of these projectiles did manage to break against the rock, leaving very tiny chips in its surface, but many ended up embedded in the nearby dirt or skipping across the lake. Alexa simply stared for a moment at the melting points embedded in the ground and the melting fragments in front of the stone.

"You need to work on basically all of that," Rhydon rumbled nearby. "I can't tell if you had a specific target on the rock, about half your attack missed entirely, and you need to hit a bit harder for whoever you're fighting to really feel it." The Ground/Rock pokemon rubbed his chin after giving the calm speech.

"I dunno," Charizard replied to him with a growl. "It could be fairly useful against Flying types." He flapped his wings before spreading the membrane for the others to see. "Most wings are fairly light, and there is the type advantage. Combine that with the wide spread and you have some nice flak." The Fire lizard smiled at his transformed trainer. "So while you work on getting that move useful against most pokemon you should also try and remember how you are doing it now. Just in case."

Alexa simply groaned at his joke, the sound low and rumbling. "He's always been like this, hasn't he?" she asked Rhydon.

"Well," Bellossom cut in from nearby, "for every time you've actually noticed one of his little jokes before he's made two others." The Grass type looked over the inhuman form of her trainer. "The worst part is he's usually right about that kind of stuff. That Flying Gym we found would have been a lot easier with an attack like that." The plant sent up a spark at the memory.

"Let me try something else first," Alexa reluctantly continued. Breathing in deeply her icy armor glittered and then she exhaled at the rock, a blast of cold air coating it in frost and extending outward to freeze part of the pond and curl the nearby grass. Small flakes of stone cracked off the rock, revealing places where water had seeped in from earlier training by the Water types.

"That wasn't too bad actually," Kingler said looking at the thin coat of white crystals that had formed over the area. The other Frozen Flame altered creature itched at her purple spikes. "Kinda like my dragon-fire only cold instead."

"Like fire?" the trainer said curiously. The group looked at her as she took in another breath. This time there was a purple sheen inside of her ice as she prepared, and instead of a blast of cold there was a burst of dark flames that licked over the rock. The sudden change in temperature cracking the rock in half, and earning a sigh from the nearby Rock type pokemon.

"Ice Dragon," he said looking at his shocked trainer. "You are definitely both Ice and Dragon. I guess you were right about us needing a lot of these," he said moving to replace the stone. His trainer simply stared at the broken rock uneasily, her tail holding still.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Charizard asked seeing the response. "You did great there."

Alexa turned slowly to the others, eyes wide. "I broke the rock," she said dumbly. "I just broke a rock by breathing on it." The transformed human looked at her icy claws. "I'm a pokemon. I really am a pokemon now." The others shuffled nervously at this declaration.

"You could just, not use it," Heracross quietly suggested. "Just put the damned ice away in a box somewhere and pretend this never happened."

Alexa's tail began to wave anxiously at this. "Dad thinks it is a good backup to have," she said without conviction, "and for it to work for that I need to know how to use this body." She reached down to her repaired belt and removed her pokeball. "Not to mention it is already registered as one of my pokemon with the League. We even found rules from Unova about pokemon becoming trainers." She gave a humorless laugh. "That's about the same as trainers becoming pokemon, right?"

"What kind of rules?" Bellossom asked cautiously. The others seemed to relax slightly at the slight change in the topic.

"You have to declare yourself before the start of an official match to the judges, in private if desired. Dad's arranging a second trainer card for this forme to make that easier," Alexa started, her tone moving to her typical explanation style. "You will then be informed of if you can participate yourself in the fight. Even if you can't you are still counted towards the League limit of six pokemon per team, so I've filled that slot for us now. When you can fight yourself there is an additional risk for doing so, as they consider you getting knocked out an instant loss. So if I do end up having to fight officially I'm going to be the last resort."

"Any idea why they need all of that?" Charizard asked. "I mean, it can't be that common right?"

"Apparently there is an entire species of pokemon over there who uses illusions to make themselves look human," the Ice type replied. Then gave a huff of cold air. "It's weird to say 'human' while I'm like this." The unease returned to the group.

"Maybe we should call this a day," Rhydon suggested. "We could see if your dad figured out a better way to get the Flame out of you?"

Alexa nodded at that, and the whole group finished restoring the field before returning to the lab.


	3. Pokeball

Alexa woke up to a feeling that was familiar from the time she managed to keep a hammock with her supplies. The loss of that to a curious wild pokemon had been a bad day, and she had hoped to get it repaired or replaced now that she was back home. Trying to look around confused her for a moment as she could not see, but she soon remembered her decision the night before. The pain of transforming back to normal had seemed like too much after the day of training in her altered form, so instead she had opted to try sleeping in her pokeball.

Feeling the net like sensation was interesting, the whole structure felt only slightly separated from being a part of her and was also quite comfortable. She had fallen asleep with relative ease inside, and the wake up was actually rather pleasant. With a bit of effort she listened through the simple sensors on the ball, but she could not hear anyone outside.

For a moment she simply rested inside. She wondered how the rest of her team dealt with simply being inside their balls. While traveling there was a lot of time when most of the team would simply remain on her belt resting rather than walking alongside her.

Remaining inside wasn't getting anything done though, so she started trying to open the container from the inside. She knew that some pokemon did so, and she was also fairly sure she could break out if needed. However, she found herself oddly reluctant to damage the item. She had seen other pokemon show concern for damage to their own pokeballs, perhaps because of the connection they represented to their trainers? Her own feelings were muddled, she wasn't sure if it was the new connection to her team or just from it being infused with her own energy.

Carefully she tried to press against the various segments of the net-like structure. The sensation of moving herself while she was simply energy was odd. With a bit of testing she felt something that might be a seam, and carefully pried at it as best she could. She felt the ball shift slightly, rocking back and forth as she had seen other pokemon make their own move. After a moment more of testing she heard the approach of footsteps in the room beyond.

"I guess I should have been ready for this." Alexa heard her father say through the pokeball's sensors. Then there was a click and she felt the seam that she had been working at start to split apart. She let go of her loose hold on it, causing it to fully open and allowing her to fall out to stand on the floor. The relative warmth of the local climate returned, and she still found it slightly unpleasant on her icy skin.

Looking up at her father Alexa wondered a bit what he thought of this whole issue. For a moment she saw a face she recognized as a pokemon researcher looking at their field of expertise, and then an instant of unease that morphed into concern. "Well, how was your night?" he asked trying to sound like this was just a normal day.

"Pretty good actually, it was sorta like having the hammock back," she confessed moving around the room to get her bearings. Walking using her tail as the main source of her balance was still strange, the limb moving mostly on its own in response to other parts of her body shifting. "It was much better than trying to sleep like this, that would be a bit too hot," she absentmindedly commented looking at the sunlight just peeking into the room.

"Really, that's actually rather interesting. I wonder if Fire type humans would have the opposite issue," he replied still somewhat distracted with looking at her changed body. "If it is helpful on that account maybe you should look into sleeping there whenever you use this forme. Do you think you can get back out without help?" he asked moving his gaze to the small sphere resting next to her team's pokeballs.

Alexa answered by explaining her attempt at getting out herself just before his arrival. "I could keep trying," she said with some reluctance after trying to describe the feel of the seam.

"It could be useful," her father said with the same interested tone as his previous suggestion to use the form as a backup just in case. "I know there were a few times I envied my own team getting a chance to be comfortable while going through particularly bad weather." The curiosity of a professional researcher returned with this comment. "Does being inside the pokeball really help that much with how you deal with temperature differently when you are like that? I would think the outside environment would have some impact."

Alexa considered the question seriously, twitching her tail somewhat purposefully to show that she was thinking. "It is, comfortable, but not wonderful," she finally said somewhat unsure. "It feels like a good temperature, something like standing in sunlight does when I'm human." Her father flinches as she says the word, and she stills from seeing him do so. "I'd say that I've had it proven to me that they are actually as nice as everyone says," she finishes deliberately ignoring the reaction.

"Okay, all the more reason to try I guess," he replied with some worry, but did not comment this time on how she said she wasn't human. Much of his argument for using it was around how it was only giving her a pair of types rather than really making her into another kind of creature. They both took a moment to just look at the ball before Alexa moved forward and pressed the button to return herself.

The seam was easier to identify now that she was sure about what she was looking for, but it still took some time to create a gap without pushing worryingly hard at the net-like structure. Moving her energy around like this was unusual, and the closest comparison she had was how her recent use of moves during training was accomplished. With a bit more effort she got a good enough handle on the edges to start to push it apart, causing it to suddenly split open in a way that left her unsteady as she exited. She fell forward in a rougher landing that sent her skidding slightly across the floor on her side, with thin lines scratched into the tiles by her spikes.

"Well, that mostly worked," her father said nervously as he moved to help her pick herself up. The trainer waved him off as she climbed to her feet herself with a large swish of her spiky tail.

"Yeah, but I don't think I will have all of the team inside at the same time without someone else to get one of us out," Alexa said shaking herself slightly as she considered the attempt. "So I guess I'll only do that if I find someone I trust to know about all this to go with me."

"That probably is for the best, pokeballs need someone keeping them safe," he agreed. "Now let's go get some breakfast. Do you want to change back first?"

Alexa considered the question looking at her father, before moving to let her pokemon out. "Yeah, I think so. I'll get Charizard to help," she said a bit nervously, the second sentence in a mumble that ended up being a low growl. While her father did not understand the words in that inhuman sound, but seeing his daughter release the Fire type he got the meaning and left the team to spare him seeing what would come next.


	4. Travels

"Make sure you have your Trainer IDs setup correctly. I've called ahead to make sure the police are aware you will be traveling in your new form," the Professor said happily as Alexa prepared the cart for the trip. She opened the small container for cards that she had in her travel bag and considered the two new ones she had just gotten.

The first was nearly identical to her original card, with her human face and other statistics on the front and methods of getting more detailed information on the back. The only changes were a new picture that was slightly better than the one she had on her original, a small symbol on the front that privately informed those who knew what it was that this was not her only ID, and two extra references on the back that unlike the rest were not clearly stating their purpose.

The second was entirely new, and had been far too much hassle to get even with how quickly they had finished. There had been a long questionnaire regarding a number of topics that oftentimes barely applied to her. The questions about specific uses of illusions were a task all on their own, and she didn't even know if she could make any in the first place. The back of this card had all the same information as the first, only with much clearer versions of the extra references allowing anyone to tell they meant she was a pokemon. One was for the League's specific line regarding pokemon-trainers, and the second was for a group that provided a variety of support services to such trainers. The front was different in a number of ways, as the body it was for had far different characteristics. The biggest difference in the layout was that in addition to the picture of her face there was also one of her profile.

The trainer spent a moment looking between the two pictures of her faces. She vaguely thought that what she should be thinking about the image of a dragon staring back at her from the second was that it did not look like her face. Instead she looked at both of them and found small things that weren't quite what she expected from herself. The dragon's face was somewhat unusual to look at, but she had seen the basics of it reflected at her during her past experiences with this form. The only detail that struck her now was the more clearly visible eyes, a pair of reptilian slits looking with nervousness at the camera. The ease she had with telling that came mostly from working with Rhydon and other pokemon with similar eyes. The emotion she spotted in them also made her notice the odd way she had been holding her face, and as a result the main thought that the image of her altered face was invoking was embarrassment at trying so hard to mimic a human expression on a face that could not manage it.

Strangely glad that the picture did not capture whatever mess she had probably made of her tail too she set it in front of the other card so that she had easy proof that she was in fact a trainer. The cart sat next to her, empty but ready for the trip to the nearest town to get supplies for the lab. "I've got it here," she told her father putting the case away. "I'm actually looking forward to the chance to pull this thing myself." Her tail swung easily while she moved to grab the handles.

"Alright then, keep safe and let me know you made it okay. I want to be sure they don't try and chase you off," her father replied with serious concern.

"Dad, I'm planning on changing back the morning before we actually reach town," the Ice/Dragon replied with a short grunt that turned into a surprised rumble as the cart lurched forward quickly. "Wow, that is a lot lighter."

"Okay, have a good trip," he said with a chuckle as she started off down the road.

After a few minutes she concluded that it would be much nicer to try this if it was snowing. The hot air around her was only made worse by the act of pulling the cart, which despite being almost unbelievably lighter was still using some effort. As time passed the strange thing was rather than feeling thirsty as a result of walking she was only getting tired more quickly. After the first hour she looked over her body and began to wonder how she actually kept cool in this form, as there wasn't any sweat at all on her. The closest she could see was areas that had possibly started melting on her icy armor.

The sounds of nature had been slightly more annoying as well. Where before she could only hear the various calls of wild pokemon now she could also understand them. Bird pokemon commenting on their days and watchers from the edge of the path trying to figure out where her trainer was. The latter being understandable to a degree, but it was still not nice to be reminded that she did not obviously look like a trainer in this form.

\---

Alexa had continued for a good distance, about as far as Charizard managed if she was right about that set of trees, before she was too tired to continue. The thing that made her realize she would not be able to go further was the state of her ice. The shimmering spiky armored parts of her body had been melting slightly over the course of the trip, only to have the resulting drops re-freeze from her body cold, resulting in their clean smooth surface being covered in small opaque bumps that changed them to a pale white like her scales. The sensation best reminded her of pruned fingers from being in water too long as a human.

Stopping to inspect this coating made her realize just how tired she had become. Her original half plan of pulling for a while and then walking beside the next pokemon suddenly seemed impossible, and she did not trust turning back to suddenly make her less tired. Looking down while she wondered what to do brought her pokeball into sight. Longingly she considered how nice it would be to get out of the heat and back to sleep in the net-like sensation. Then the sight of the rest of her team's spheres next to it gave her an idea.

\--

Rhydon had been resting for the upcoming trip. He usually got the longest time during their few instances of pulling something or carrying a heavy object due to his near-human levels of endurance. So he was not surprised to see that he was being called out while on the road itself. Turning to face his trainer's icy white body, however, was not something he was prepared for, especially with her tired frame looking disturbingly similar to Charizard after his turn was up.

"Hey Rhydon, are you ready?" Alexa asked while taking off the belt of pokeballs. "We've made some good time, and I think we should make it to town when I expected." She then shuffled closer while waiting for his response.

"Yeah, I'm good to go," he replied slightly confused. "Did you take us here yourself?" he asked looking between the cart and the Ice/Dragon holding out the belt of pokeballs.

"I managed it, but I guess I underestimated how much you guys worked when we do this," she said as she started to put the belt onto his waist.

"Um, Alexa?" he started to ask as she continued.

"I'm actually a lot more tired than I expected, so I'm hoping you would be able to go for a ways on your own while I rested in my ball?" she asked noticeably exhausted.

Looking over the other reptile Rhydon saw that she seemed to have pushed herself too hard. Her icy coating looked to be in bad shape and she was actually panting. "Okay, I can take over, and you look like you could use a nice long break," he replied, finding the last words strange to say.

"Thanks Rhydon," she said with a smile and a somewhat shaky hug. "Just find a good clearing to stop at for lunch, and if you run into trouble get the others to help." She then yawned widely. "See you then," she finished with a wave and a tap of her own pokeball, the sphere changing her to red energy and taking her inside.

Rhydon spent a moment simply looking at the space his trainer had occupied a moment before, then moved to take up the cart to travel along. Looking down at the small spheres containing his teammates made him feel strange. It was almost like he was the trainer. With a touch of nervousness he grabbed the handles of the cart and started to move along the path.

Traveling on his own was different from walking alongside his trainer. The crunch of her shoes against the ground alongside his own was missing, making the road seem quiet despite the sounds of nature around him. There was also the feeling of the belt around his waist, the spheres attached to it clacking together lightly.

After a while of traveling there was a loud rustling from the edge of the past, and the sudden appearance of a purple shape from the tall grass. "You, rocky trainer, fight!" a young Rattata suddenly shouted at the Ground/Rock type. Rhydon simply froze for a moment at the contents of the statement from the small rodent. After another harsh squeak from his opponent he quickly and fearfully tapped his trainers ball, hopeful that Alexa could resolve the confusion.

Instead of the temporary Dragon pokemon popping out there was a short deep buzzing sound that he had heard before when his teammates were too tired and did not want to come out. Hearing another growl from the pokemon he considered just fighting it himself, but quickly dismissed the thought as he still needed to pull the cart so he couldn't tire himself out with fighting. Worried and confused he moved to tap Charizard's ball instead, hoping the other reptile could help as the longest time member of the team.

"My turn already?" the Fire type started to ask before seeing the Rattata. "Or you forgot that we have the mons who don't pull- Rhydon, where is Alexa?" Charizard questioned dryly upon seeing his teammate.

"In her ball, she won't come out and I don't know what to do," the Ground type quickly said with worry. He rapidly looked between the two other pokemon. "Please, fix it."

A blast of fire hit the ground in front of the purple pokemon sending the small rodent scurrying away with a cry of defeat. "It was just a tiny rat, you could have just shooed it away," Charizard then told his teammate. "Probably."

"Yeah, okay. I'm going to keep going then," Rhydon replied with a mix of embarrassment and relief. "Next time I'll get out Bellossom instead, if Alexa is still too tired."

The Fire type nodded and started to move to go back into his pokeball. "Who was pulling before you while Alexa was apparently walking around as a Ice type?" he asked looking towards their trainer's ball.

"She was, I guess she wanted a turn. Then I guess she decided I could handle being out here on my own."

Charizard looked uncharacteristically serious at that answer. "Hmm. I guess I'll talk with her at lunch. Good luck playing at being a trainer," he said vaguely jokingly as he tapped his pokeball, leaving Rhydon alone in the middle of the road.

\---

"You there, where is your trainer?" a Pidgeotto asked a short while later as it landed in the path. Much to Rhydon's relief the Normal/Flying pokemon did not assume he was the trainer. Then he remembered what exactly the answer to the bird's question was and found himself nervous once more.

"Um, she's kinda in her pokeball," he confessed to the proudly standing pokemon.

"Well get her- What?" The avian's calm demenior suddenly vanished into shock as the response fully hit. "How?"

"Um, she kinda got turned into an Ice/Dragon type, and then caught herself." Saying it out loud made the Ground/Rock pokemon realize how odd their situation was. "She's still our trainer though," he quickly said to clarify

Pidgeotto simply stared at him for a moment. "So she's a pokemon and a trainer at the same time? That's something you can do?"

"I guess so," Rhydon replied shifting nervously, causing the pokeballs on the belt to click and clink. "It probably works best if you can talk to humans, she can still do that. Kinda hard to be a trainer if no other trainers understand you."

The bird pokemon looked thoughtful at this, eyes going between the belt, the cart, and Rhydon. "I guess I can just ask you if there is room for a Flying type?" the avian asked somewhat distractedly.

"Not really, we have a full six right now counting Alexa, and according to her she's always going to count now," he replied apologetically. "We also have Charizard and he's still a Flying type most of the time."

"Where would I go to try and become a trainer?" Pidgeotto then asked cautiously, brushing off the strange reply. He was looking around nervously, as if they was speaking about some great secret.

"Uh," Rhydon paused utterly confused at the idea of going straight to becoming the trainer as a backup to joining a team. "You can try going to the lab, her dad probably has something that will let him talk to you," he said staring at the pokemon while pointing backwards down the path. "You really would need some way of talking yourself, and there is a lot of work that goes into being a trainer."

He then found himself walking along with the Flying type in a detailed discussion of what he knew about being a trainer. Most of what he was telling was simply things he had seen or heard about Alexa doing, but enough were things he helped with or instigated to set him on edge. Like how he was talking about working with the other pokemon to find the best way of using a move, who to send out against a particular foe, keeping track of their supplies to make sure they had enough, or all the little things that made a place good or bad for stopping at to rest. As the discussion continued he became more and more aware of how many of the concerns he was informing the other pokemon about were things he currently needed to do.

After a notable distance the bird pokemon thanked him and flew off behind him in the direction of the lab, seemingly unconcerned with how their little talk had only made the trip longer. Without the avian Rhydon was left alone once again to think about what had just happened to him. He had seen his trainer get stopped along the road many times during their past journey for one reason or another. Sometimes to battle, but others were requests of help or even just brief periods of discussion with a traveler heading the same way. The similarity between what had just happened to him and that typical trainer action was quite clear to him.

"I'm not supposed to be the trainer," he said quietly, just to get the words out. "I'm just supposed to be there to help out, fight for her, maybe even work with the others on my own a bit. Not to be the one doing all of this." He looked back at the cart with a sigh, then started to look for a place to stop for lunch.

Finding a spot ended up being somewhat harder than he expected. All of the things he had told the Pidgeotto were rolling around his mind, standing out as he looked at various relatively small clearings by the road. After passing the third of such small areas he found himself stumbling. Stopping to catch himself he realized how tired he had become while lost in his worries, and looking up to the sky he saw it was later than he expected. He simply settled on the next spot, which while smaller than the previous one had some stones that had once been set up for a fire pit.

Absentmindedly he got out the food and some other basic supplies as he had done before to help his trainer as she got the others out and settled. Only after he had completed that task did he look at the empty field seeing that he was still effectively alone. Nervously he looked between the pokeballs on his belt and his preparations around the cart. No human had placed the various items around, and yet it still looked more like the hastily abandoned campsites his family had occasionally scavenged before his capture than a pokemon's work.

Tapping his trainer's ball he was relieved to hear the pop of it opening. "Ugh, still tired," Alexa said groggy as she started to look around with her tail drooping behind her and icy armor still patched with white. "You've already set everything up? Thank you, I don't know how much help I'll be tonight." He simply nodded at his trainer, tired and ill at ease with the day's events. "Let's get everyone else out then," she proposed and put her hand to her belly. Her icy claws hit bare scales, and the Dragon type turned in embarrassment to Rhydon. He quickly unfastened the belt and handed it back to her so she could be the one to let out the others.

The team gathered around to eat, most of the pokemon present looking at the two tired reptiles that had pulled the cart. Rhydon had gotten out the bags of dried foods and the group was currently passing them around. Charizard was looking at Alexa with consideration, Bellossom looked almost exasperated with her trainer, Heracross wasn't meeting her eyes although the exhausted trainer had not noticed, and Kingler seemed vaguely amused by their trainer's plan.

Alexa was tiredly attempting to eat her bag of what were technically emergency rations, without much enjoyment. Looking over the group more to see what they were eating she locked her eyes on the dragon-like pokemon prominently displayed on Charizard's bag. Noticing this the Fire type held the bag out for her to grab some of the pieces, which she quickly and happily ate. "I guess my appetite was changed too, because this stuff is much better than the human food," Alexa said with a sigh, only for Charizard to burst out laughing.

"You've eaten about half of that bag overall," Bellossom said shaking her head. "The rest of us were kinda sure you knew you were snatching food from him for months now. I for one am sure you have always liked his stuff better than whatever you have there." She pointed at the fairly plain bag of human food.

"Told you all she didn't even know she was doing it," the winged lizard laughed. He still seemed distracted, but the patchy white areas of her armor seemed to have made him put whatever it was off.

"I wouldn't mind trying some to see if transforming can change our tastes," Heracross said looking at the bags in question. "This stuff has never been that great, so I'm also wondering if any of yours taste better." Charizard nodded to the other Fire type and passed his bag over. Heracross took a piece and tried it quickly. "Okay, maybe we should just get a bunch of this stuff?" he asked afterward half joking shaking the bag.

"Sounds good," Alexa said with a yawn, obviously tired to the point of distraction. "Are we about ready to head out?"

"Am I next, or is it Heracross's turn?" Charizard asked looking between the Bug and Ice types.

The temporarily Bug/Fire pokemon looked over at the cart thoughtfully. "Let me try something first. I'm a bit weaker without my Fighting type," he said standing up. He walked over to the small vehicle and lifted the handles. Pulling it back and forth he sighed. "I might be able to move it empty like this, but when we fill it I doubt I can move it."

"I kinda want to try," Kingler said picking at her own draconic armor. "I'm a lot stronger like this."

"I'm fine with that," Alexa said tiredly and obviously not thinking about how the crab pokemon would carry the cart.

"I'll go next," Charizard said moving to collect the belt of pokeballs. "We can figure out how Kingler can help when Alexa isn't falling asleep." The team worked together to put away everything, although Rhydon and Alexa were stopped near the start of the process to go back to their pokeballs for much needed rest. The remaining three pokemon stored themselves once they were again ready to travel.

\---

With everything and everyone packed Charizard set off on his own to travel for the remainder of the day. "Can't get around it can I?" he asked himself looking down at the belt. "Still wound up basically a trainer." Not too long after he had made it to the well used spot they had planned on staying the night, with most of the wild pokemon along the route avoiding the somewhat annoyed Fire type.

Before setting up or letting the others out he summoned his trainer from her pokeball again. "Hey Alexa," he greeted her as she took in the area they had arrived at. Her ice armor was now once again shiny and she was focusing much better on the world around her, if still looking quite tired. "I think we need to talk about today."

Looking at her pokemon with concern at his serious statement she ducked her head and hunched. "I didn't help very much did I?" she asked thinking of how tired she had been when she passed off the cart and during lunch.

"That's not one of my problems," he replied looking at her seriously. With a sigh he continued. "You know how I was raised mostly by humans, right?" he asked looking at the cart.

"Yeah, dad sometimes asks me how you are doing to pass along to them," Alexa replied, getting an amused huff out of the other reptile.

"They're an older couple, but given how many siblings I had they had more time for me than my actual parents. One of their grand-kids was just learning to read back then." Charizard traced an informational sticker on the side of the storage compartment for the cart's cover. "I thought that was neat, and they thought my attempts to learn were cute."

"You've know how to read the whole time?" the Ice/Dragon asked. "I'd thought you just picked up some words here and there."

The Fire/Flying pokemon looked at her surprised before chuckling. "So I didn't manage to hide it from you?" He shook his head. "Anyway, the surprise for them came when I finally managed it. Well, okay, the real surprise was when me and my siblings taught the kid to speak Charmander, but that's how they figured out I could do it." His trainer let out a short laugh at the image. "Just me, none of the other 'manders bothered really, a couple of them can at least make out some common warnings and such last I knew. I was the reading Charmander, so they decided to teach me to write," he said with a defeated sigh, then used a claw to trace out a short sentence in the dirt drawing her attention. "Then they asked if I wanted to be a trainer," he read from his writing.

"Oh," Alexa said turning from the words on the ground to look at his face. Her tail lashed as she then turned to look into the forest. "You didn't want to," she said sadly.

"I wanted to be a Starter, like my siblings. To have a trainer that would be my friend and travel with me. I don't care about being powerful or anything like that, I just want to see the world and have fun," he replied rocking the cart back and forth with its handles. "I'm a Char', not a human," he said, flinching as he finished when he remembered that she had been transformed.

"I'm sorry," she replied, a slight squeaking sound coming from her arms rubbing against each other.

"It just figures, ya know? I get a great trainer who doesn't expect me to be a battle obsessed strongest of them all pokemon like all the other 'zards, and I still end up having to be the trainer," he finished with a sigh. Then he turned to face her and folded his arms behind his back. "Still, if I got to do, it might as well do it right. So with problem one taken care of, let's go with number two," he said with the false cheer of someone enjoying giving bad news.

"Number two?" Alexa asked turning to face the other pokemon and freezing stiff.

"You went out, alone, without any backup, or any of us knowing anything. Then you proceeded to work yourself just to the edge of getting sick, in heat you aren't used to I have to add, and finally you then shoved Rhydon into the same situation," he listed looking at her seriously. "At bare minimum I'm holding this against you every time you complain about me overworking myself from here on out." She twitched in response. "I know you're excited about all this, even with how much you're upset with the actual change, but please try and think things through."

"Excited?" she asked unsure. "Why do you think that?"

Looking at her thoughtfully he took a moment to consider his answer. "Well, you ran off this morning without telling anyone and got yourself totally exhausted. You don't really seem to mind being like that when you don't think about it. You even went through all the hoops there are to getting the card."

"That was mostly dad, he doesn't seem to think there should be any difference now," she said with a sigh. "If it was just some temporary thing, something quick that didn't really do much, then I'd be better about it. Instead I'm this," she motioned to her body, "and registered on my team which means I'm one of my pokemon." She flinched at the last word. "Well, teammates, team members? I don't even know what to call it anymore," she mumbled too soft for him to hear.

"Well, getting back to the problem at hand, you worked yourself so hard this morning you almost made yourself sick," he said to change the subject while motioning to her arm. "I'm pretty sure that the frosty coating you had at lunch is something like a rash to an ice type like you. Which means that seeing it should have been the thing to tell you you were at your limit."

Alexa held up the limb to look at how it had cleared up. "But I had a lot more energy at that point, even at lunch I had a good amount I could use," she said stifling a yawn.

"Right, tell me how you feel right now energy wise," he instructed, getting a response that made him shake his head. "That's what 'done' feels like. Doing more stuff at that point is for desperate measures. I'm almost impressed you managed the switch-over to Rhydon."

"I guess I didn't realize it was that bad," she said scraping at her arm. "I'm used to traveling much farther on my own as a human." He sighed loudly at this statement.

"I think the rest of this can wait until the other's are around to hear it too, so they can help with keeping you from pushing too far. This is the kind of stuff a pokemon needs to know so they don't end up hurting themselves trying to match a human, and I've had plenty of lessons about what a pokemon needs to be a trainer," he said jokingly starting to take off the belt of pokeballs.

"That many?" Alexa asked nervously looking at him.

He stopped and gave yet another sigh. "It took them a while to understand that I actually did mean it when I said I didn't want to be a trainer."

\---

"So, now that we've all had a lesson in how to tell when you're too tired," Bellossom said looking nervously at Charizard, who had given a far too serious speech on the matter. "How about we talk about something less weird, like transforming into other types." The Fire/Flying type chuckled and shook his head.

"You're still interested?" Alexa asked completely surprised. "Even after all of this?" she seemed torn between excited and horrified.

The rest of the team looked at their trainer somewhat uneasily. "Well, that backfired," Bellossom mumbled.

"I think so," Heracross said looking over his trainer. "I mean, I know I'm stuck waiting for this to end." A brief flash of heat went out from his cracks and made her move back slightly. "But seeing what has happened to the rest of you it still seems like trying something else could work out better."

Alexa looked at him slightly confused for a moment, which was long enough for the Bug type to realize he had included her own change in his statement. Slowly picking out her words she said, "Dad mentioned that he was going to be looking into something while we were on this trip. If it works out he says I should be safe to start testing again." She looked nervously between the others. "I haven't said much about it to him yet. I'd feel bad if I had to break my promise, but I thought- I had thought you were all scared of this now too," she confessed threading her claws together.

"I for one was scared that you had gotten hurt right when it happened," Charizard said "but I like swimming too much to worry about changing myself."

"It's been fun so far," Rhydon added. "It was real great seeing Vaporeon's face when he saw I was a Grass type," he told her smiling widely.

"We can just take them out again, right?" Kingler asked rubbing her own Frozen Flame. "I know it hurts to do it, but still it's fairly easy to go back as far as this stuff goes. We're not stuck waiting on it going away on its own."

"I want to be an Electric type," Bellossom said solidly looking her trainer in the eye. "I like being able to just send attacks like that," she snapped her leaves against each other causing a small click "and having another type is nice. So even if you're so worried about it I don't mind being like that for good." She finished by standing up straighter in a challenge to the Ice/Dragon typed trainer.

"He's moved up looking into what happens if you use another transformation while still affected by one," Alexa told her overly calmly. "That way he will know if it is safe for me to try these things while I am like this. So it should be fine for you to be changed while we go forward too."

Everyone stopped moving at that. After processing that revelation the plant pokemon let herself fall backward to sit on the ground. "I'm having such great luck with this conversation," she sarcastically grumbled.

"The next item was going to be the Ghost type one, but I'm not comfortable with us working with that one now," the Ice/Dragon continued as if the Grass type hadn't reacted. "So I'm going to wait to look over the stuff we are picking up on this trip." Looking at the shocked faces around her she sighed. "I don't like the idea of putting you guys through this and not doing it myself too."

"Us doing stuff you don't is practically the point of you being the trainer," Charizard noted " and I'm not a fan of the idea that we need to start doing everything you do either."

"I could go for less walking alone in the middle of nowhere," Rhydon agreed causing Alexa to look away embarrassed.

The group silently decided to move on to eating their dinner after that. Bags were passed around again for all of them to try. Charizard's mood managed to improve slightly when Alexa decided that his bag was the one she liked best. Rhydon nodded thoughtfully at the taste of Bellossom's, while Kingler and the Grass type were both fine with their current food.

"Alexa, I'm stealing your bag," Heracross said while holding the human rations. "You can share with Charizard." The winged reptile laughed at the reaction.

"As long as someone eats it I'm fine with that," she replied casually. "I'm pretty sure now that I've just been having a couple pieces and then taking from his anyway this whole time, right?" she asked getting a general agreement from the others.

When everyone was finished and the food put away Charizard looked over his tired teammate and trainer. "Alexa, would you mind sleeping like that outside of your ball tonight?" he asked looking at the tent thoughtfully.

"I wasn't planning on sleeping in there tonight, but I was thinking of changing back first," she replied. "What are you thinking?"

He looked over the entire group considering his words. "You should get more used to being tired while you are like that, and get a better handle on temperatures that are hot for you. The pokeballs make things too nice for you considering how you are still our trainer."

"And I need to be out in order to actually do anything," she finished for him, nodding in agreement.

"Which means you need to prepare for uncomfortable weather if you do need to spend a night like that," he halfway agreed. "You don't mind do you?"

She looked at him for a moment, a hint of amusement visible in her eyes. "How about this, if I end up unable to sleep because of it I'll just wake you up to turn me back, okay?" she asked with false sweetness, earning a chuckle from the Fire type.

"Yeah, that's fine. The trainer should have to deal with problems the team faces getting to sleep after all," he jokingly replied, causing the transformed human to laugh.

\---

Susan would have just kept walking down the path if not for the ice. The campsite setup on the road fairly close to town was a perfectly common occurrence, and she had left early enough that it was just barely light out when she reached the small clearing. However, the tent was coated on three sides with a thick covering of slowly melting ice that could only be from a pokemon, and given it was the only tent present she fearfully assumed a young trainer had run afoul of their own Ice type. So she walked over to check hopeful that the inhabitants were alright.

"Hello? Is anyone in there?" she called out standing in front of the ice free doorway of the tent. Immediately she heard a grumble, and then there was a shifting sound of somebody waking up, accompanied by the squeaking sound of ice rubbing against ice.

"Ugh, what?" a fairly deep but feminine voice said inside the tent. "Give me a second." The shifting and squeaking continued for moment, then the zipper on the opening began to move. Susan was not quite sure what she expected from the sounds, but a large white scaled reptilian head with ice blue slit eyes was not it. More of the pokemon emerged, revealing spines of ice covering the back of its head and the massive spiked armor that made up its torso. The human trainer stepped back as the obvious Ice type finished getting out and stood up. It was hunched in a typical fashion for a reptile pokemon that made it just barely eye level instead of towering above her, with its long tail lashing behind it covered in sharp spikes of ice.

"Oh, sorry. I didn't mean to wake you and your trainer," Susan said worried by the drowsy looking pokemon.

"I'm my trainer," the creature mumbled in the same voice she had heard before. "Is something wrong?" it asked with concern.

"Uh, I saw that- Sorry, I did not mean to wake you. I just saw the ice on your tent and worried-" Susan stopped herself again totally confused as to how to react to a talking pokemon that claimed to be a trainer.

"Ice?" it asked turning to look at the tent. "Oh. That's not good." Icy claws moved to touch the coating and the reptile made a rumbling sound. After a second it tapped at its belly, revealing to the human that a belt of pokeballs rested there. A Charizard appeared and looked between the Ice type, Susan, and finally the tent. The Fire type growled at the other pokemon, getting another growl as a response. Soon the two were obviously discussing the issue that had led her to investigating in the first place.

"I'd hate to interrupt, but you are fine right?" she finally managed after the winged reptile started working on carefully melting the ice. She was reassured that the problem she initially suspected was not an issue, but now there was the trainer aspect confusing her. "Is this your first trip?" The presence of the fully evolved Charizard said otherwise, but the confusion over the ice did not fit with that.

The two pokemon started, seemingly having forgotten that she was there. The blue reptilian eye that suddenly focused on her was unreadable to the human. "I had something a bit strange happen to me," it started haltingly. "It turned me into an Ice/Dragon type." An ice coated claw tapped a large frozen crystal embedded in the pokemon's scales just above her tail, and Susan could not help but shudder at the realization that she had woke up a Dragon. "So this is the first night I've slept outside in my new form."

Susan wished that she had not asked, this was obviously some Legendary pokemon on a journey to look at the human world. "Oh, well then I won't bother you anymore. Have a safe trip," she said as calmly as she could manage and walked off as fast as she could without looking like running. Predatory pokemon like that Dragon seemed to be typically to react badly to such things.

\--

"Did she just run away from me?" Alexa asked somewhat depressed by the trip so far. She had a lot of problems already between exhausting herself and Rhydon the day before, freezing the tent over the night, and now having apparently failed to explain her situation to a trainer who was just trying to help.

"Well, she was fairly safe with how she did it," Charizard commented looking at the ice that had coated their tent thoughtfully "and we really did need to be woken up a bit early to deal with this before we moved on."

Alexa sighed and looked at the frozen block. "I can't believe I did that," she said before shaking her head. "Well, I can believe it, but its so embarrassing." She tapped the ice, finding the substance interesting in an unfamiliar way.

"Honestly I'm the one who should have expected it. You are a glacial pokemon and it was the first time you've slept outside like that," the Fire type replied moving his tailflame over to melt another portion. "You making ice instinctively is the most likely outcome, and it shouldn't have been a surprise."

Alexa pulled one of the blocks away from the tent carefully, finding it oddly easy to move the ice away. "I guess so," she said lifting the block off the ground. "This is still a bigger result than I would have expected."

The other reptile looked between her and the block. "Can you get the rest of this off of the tent like that?" he asked moving his flame away.

"Huh? Yeah I guess so," she replied setting the piece down and moving to remove what was left of the others. After looking at the pile she sighed. "I just cleaned that up on my own, didn't I?"

"For a temporary change you have a lot of instincts," Charizard commented shaking his head. "Let's get the others out and you back to human."

"Sounds good," she agreed moving closer so he could remove the crystal. After a painful moment she found herself human again, and once more needing help getting out of the fragments of ice that remained. "This stuff is a lot heavier when it isn't a part of me," she commented as he worked to get it off of her, getting a chuckle from the Fire type and a growling reply that she could no longer understand.

\---

The cart was loaded and waiting for her to finish in the Pokemart. She had already spent a short time looking over the ingredients lists of dry food, and after comparing prices she instead found ones close to the old human version Heracross had liked to have him try. A bag intended for Ice types was also selected to be a new addition to their available mixes. Otherwise she just got replacements for the other kinds, although with a larger bag chosen for Charizard's mix.

The next thing was restocking her general supplies, the idea of traveling to another region overtaking her mind as she got ready. Her father was looking into when and how the Unova League started. They had decided to go for this distant option because it was a place they knew already had trainers that were pokemon. The prospect of at least partially being normal despite the new issue was a relief, but without knowing when she'd need to leave she had decided to get everything ready now. This was a simple enough task when it came to restocking the basics, with her main concern being having enough storage to keep the resulting goods from overfilling her pack.

The final thing she needed to do was look into the store's stock of Ice and Dragon type care products. This was a common thing for trainer to need to do right after they captured a new pokemon for their team, but Alexa found herself locating the products for her own types nervously. A small sign had been placed at the start of the overall section requesting customers to get permission from the staff before letting out any pokemon in the area. The items were mostly sorted by the type of pokemon that they catered to, with rarer types having notably fewer things available. After looking at the various signs she determined that items specifically for the Dragon type were not actually present at all in this store, while Normal type care products took up most of an aisle.

Having failed to find the rarer of her two types Alexa nervously started with the un-typed products for reptile pokemon. Her own scales were rather close to Charizard's in structure so she already had some items that should at least partly work on them. The ice armor on the other hand was somewhat closer to Rhydon's own rocky plates, which meant that she would probably need type specific tools to care for it like his own rock maintenance kit. After looking at the selection available she simply picked up some things they already used that she knew would wear out more quickly with two pokemon needing them. Most of the devices she did not already have were oriented more to dealing with the typical hotter than normal climates reptile pokemon lived in, filling requirements which were the opposite of what she needed.

The trainer was disappointed by the quite small section available for Ice types. Front and center were some small packages of emergency cooling materials, apparently the counterpart to the heating packs she was more familiar with for cold weather. Understanding the need for such things she read over the instructions on the various kinds before selecting some to keep on hand. The next items she collected were basic medical items for specific injuries, with her personal priority being a compound for making deep cracks in ice heal faster. These items would be added to the existing first aid kit the team already possessed with its collection of type specific medicine and medical tools.

Other care items she did find included ice cleaning and carving materials, both of which had too little documentation for Alexa to feel safe using. There were some small guidebooks available, but in her opinion they were too sparse to be worth the cost. Considering the pokemon commonly available in Kanto with the Ice type the section was bordering the items for the Water type, and she soon determined that the few items that did have enough instructions for her to be comfortable trying to use them were also too specific to the Water/Ice mix of types.

The small selection of items to provide comfort and play with was more interesting to the part time Ice type. There were some hard treats that listed a variety of benefits that Alexa found herself contemplating getting to try. A small box of toys made from materials that handled cold temperatures well was present and marked down from lack of sales. Small cooling devices, some obviously intended for food preservation rather than pokemon use, were also available. One that caught her eye was a set of ice packs that were made with pokemon moves in mind, with more robust plastic shells that could withstand the rapid cooling of an attack. After looking at all of it she reluctantly decided to wait until they were at a shop with a better selection before trying any of these new options.

Somewhat disappointed by the lack of variety she moved on to looking over the other types, taking note of more general items that might be useful if any of the team found another form that they liked. The electric type section had some things she did want to pick up, including a travel version of the charging device they had used while testing Bellossom's change. Grass typed goods that Rhydon would potentially use had so much already in common use by Bellossom that Alexa did not think they'd need more unless they actually did use a lot more on the road. Some water type specific scale cleaning kit and soaps would possibly be useful, but she wanted to discuss that with Charizard before getting some.

After looking for a short while she concluded that actually being able to talk to the others about this stuff made doing so on her own awkward. She wanted to ask her teammates what they thought of the various items, what they liked and didn't. The only thing stopping her from attempting just that was the need to be in her Ice/Dragon form to actually understand them. For a moment she considered asking the staff if it would be okay to do so, but trying to figure out how to word such a question stopped her. The reaction of the other trainer still in her mind she sighed and continued getting the last of the items she knew they needed and moved to pay and pack the various goods away.

\---

"Okay, that is a lot worse looking when its on the tent," Bellossom commented on the once again ice covered structure. Three sides were coated in thick ice, and the pokemon that had slept inside the night before was shuffling in embarrassment nearby. "Mostly because you somehow knew to not coat the door. Are we sure you aren't doing some strange temporary evolution thing? Cause this looks more like new evolution stuff than the mess we've been working with."

"I thought you wanted to become a new type permanently?" Kingler asked tapping the ice. "Or are you fine with being a mess?" Charizard chuckled at the Water/Dragon's joke as he took the last of the items out of the tent.

"You know what I mean. When I was the Electric type I could barely stop myself right after changing, and even by the time I turned back I wasn't up for the advanced stuff," the plant pokemon huffed.

"I have to agree," Rhydon said nervously looking at his trainer. "I'm pretty sure I wasn't doing that detailed of stuff in my sleep when I was a bush."

"I'd say its not that bad," Charizard told the group walking back to look over the remains of a small breakfast they had eaten together. "You two did get a general handle on that kind of thing quick, and it might be just that the opening made the side weaker so that it did not build up as easily."

"This is the only item we've tried so far with a specific note regarding evolution," Alexa said looking up, a touch of interest in her eyes. "The effects are safer on pokemon that don't evolve, as it does not have an evolution to alter. Kingler, how does it compare?"

The crab pokemon blinked at the reaction and then rubbed at the spine containing her own Frozen Flame. "I'm not too sure. It's been fairly easy for me, but I haven't tried any other changes yet." She looked thoughtfully at the ice. "It is something to test," she said nodding.

"We can work on it when we get back," the Ice/Dragon said actually happy again. "With that we might even be able to work out which ones are closer or farther from evolution." She then moved to the tent and began to remove the blocks. "Are you sure we should just leave this here to melt on its own?"

"You haven't really looked at that stuff when you aren't made of it," Heracross said looking nervously at the still present stack from the previous night. "That is glacier ice, I didn't manage more than a trickle when I tried to melt it."

Charizard laughed and sent a blast of flame at the older pile. There was a brief flow of water, then it froze again changing the stack into a short pillar of ice. "It would take me a while to get it melted, and since you can take it off just fine we should be okay."

"That just makes me less happy about it," she grumbled in reply carrying the first block to set next to the newly melted ice. "What is the plan for who pulls the cart today?"

"You are walking alongside for as long as you can manage, then if we haven't made it Bellossom takes over," Charizard said looking over the group. "Rhydon goes first for pulling, followed by me, and finally Kingler."

"I don't get a turn this time?" she asked, feeling strange about not helping with that part. "Not even to try out figuring out how tired I am?"

The winged reptile looked confused at her reaction. "When they said Trainers and their starters end up like each other they did not mean like this," he grumbled shaking his head. "We want to know if you're going to go slower on the road like this, so knowing how far you can go just walking is a bit more important."

Alexa sighed dramatically. "Alright then, I'll just scare away any other trainers that show up," she said with a hint of humor. "I'm going to have to get past the five of you before I can try battling myself, aren't I?" she asked with a toothy grin.

Charizard growled "Yes" at the same time as Rhydon laughing while shaking his head and Bellossom groaning out the word "Dragons". The remaining two members simply laughed, but Kingler did after a moment comment "You'd better believe it" and the Bug type was laughing more in confusion than anything as he looked dumbfounded by the very concept.


End file.
